1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arm for suspending a vibrating member, in particular the internal combustion engine of a vehicle, said arm being fixed at one end to said vibrating member and at its opposite end to a chassis, and being required to have low bending stiffness in two mutually perpendicular directions x and z, and high stiffness in compression and in traction in the direction y perpendicular to the two preceding directions, at least after the beginning of limited-amplitude displacement.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present such arms are made of rigid metal and the elasticity desired for the connection between the vibrating member and a fixed chassis, e.g. between the internal combustion engine of a vehicle and its chassis, is obtained by means of a block that is resilient in all directions, e.g. made of rubber or the like, which block is interposed between the said chassis and the corresponding end of the said suspension arm, for example.
The drawback with that type of device lies in its high cost, and in the fact that the connection is resilient in all directions even though it may, on the contrary, be desirable for it to be somewhat stiff in a determined direction. In addition, rubber has limited temperature performance, and is subject to creep, and this constitutes a major drawback for an engine.